Family writes book about racism through the eyes of an 8-year-old

COLUMBUS, Ohio ( WCMH ) – The NBC 4 Today book series is back for July with a deeply personal story written by a local family about racism as told through the eyes of their daughter, who experienced it firsthand.

“ Let’s Mix It Up ” is written by Emerson, Corie, and Anthony Locke.

“This book is dedicated to anyone who has been made to feel different or less than,” Anthony Locke read from the book’s dedication page. “Don’t let anyone dim your light. Shine bright and strong, confident and bold.”

Those words describe Emerson Locke to a T, a beautiful young girl who in recent years has experienced racism from her peers, from seemingly innocent lack of awareness to intentionally targeting her.

“I went to elementary school here in central Ohio in the 80s, and 30 years later, almost 40 years later, for her to experience some of the same things that I experienced was jarring for me,” Anthony Locke.

“I didn’t know what it was at first,” Emerson Locke said. “You want to cry, you want to get mad.”

“And after the last incident, I looked at my husband and said, you know, ‘Hey, why don’t we try to turn a negative into a positive, write a book about racism from her perspective just so kids can understand how it makes someone else feel,’” Corie Locke said.

As the family worked on the book, something else happened.

“It made me feel more empowered,” Emerson Locke said.

“It became cathartic a bit with being able to put paper, fill out there, and then once we started to really craft the story, then that’s where I felt it reached a level of empowerment,” Anthony Locke said. “The art of possible, like, ‘Wow, this could be really cool to be able to reach people from the lens of a child.’”

“And I’ve had a lot of conversations with other parents about how do we initiate the conversation with our children at such a young age about such a serious topic,” Corie Locke said. “And having conversations with them, just trying to give them our perspective of how it can make her feel and raising the awareness, that’s kind of why we wrote the book.”

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